HELP!!!! VERO & New Items

[bowman]

Hi all. I am new here. Just purchased eBay Stealth & have been looking at a lot of the forums here. I think I educated myself so much reviewing all the posts here that I my whole plan has to change from the ORIGINAL reason I bought the stealth. I was selling a specific category of items and was doing well. Then VERO issue. Had no clue what it meant.

called ebay and all they would give me is some mumbo jumbo but would not explain what I did wrong. Since I had no clue what I did wrong, I started listing again. did well. then BOOM! account suspended 1 week. I called again. no explanation as to what I did wrong. started selling again after a week. did well, then BOOM! 30 day suspension. Finally this time I got someone on the phone who fully explained what I did wrong so now I understood that whether the item was genuine or a replica a trademark/copyright violation means I need permission to sell the items.

tried to figure out what to do but couldn't find any answers so I opened another ebay account and started selling in that account while the first one was on 30 day suspension. used a family member phone & address, new email etc....started doing well then BOOM! then BOOM again, then the 1st account became active. since I had no other ideas I said what the hell and listed on both accounts going back and forth etc did well then BOOM! all accounts suspended. I figured I was done but what to do?

have a family to feed. got laid off from work 7 months ago. cant find a job. tried a 3rd account and instantly, BOOM! that's when I decided to start looking around to see what I can do. I basically gave up and then came across this site. bought the stealth and figured I would be good to go!!!!! then I started reading the VERO threads posted here and am realizing that I am NOT good to go. no matter how many accounts I have I can keep getting shut down due to VERO instead of the accounts getting linked.

my main concern was accounts getting linked and suspended but if I keep going with these items it has nothing to do with linked accounts. its all about VERO. so now what? I know the replies will be to find something else to sell. but what? how to find them? I know nobody on here will tell me what they are selling and I don't expect that BUT how do I find something else? where do I look?

what do I do? PLEASE HELP AS I HAVE A MORTAGE AND KIDS TO FEED!!! I don't want to waste my time selling the same items knowing I will have to open a million accounts because they will keep getting suspended. any ideas where I can look? what I can look for? how to look? sorry for the SUPER LONG story. I am new here, I am frustrated, I am concerned for my family & VERY STRESSED OUT...HELP

[RSSDistributing]

I use a lot of different websites to find generic items. Make sure not to sell vero items. I learned the hard way. I wouldve rather had a problem with ebay. Mine was with customs. I use websites such as aliexpress or DHgate but you have to review and research every product and supplier otherwise theyll take your money and run.

[SilentHill]

whoa space your messages out. make it easier to read. that's one pointer I can give you.

[jeffweico]

I add products to my line each month. I look around on eBay for items that sell, but I AVOID "hot" products due to the competition. It could be ANYTHING... Medical supplies, Piranhas, Replacement products, you name it. Once I have something interesting, I goto Terapeak to see how many of the items are sold each month. If it is an acceptable number, then I try to source the product. That is the REALLY HARD part! Because I have to find a distributor that will sell to me in REASONABLE quantities at a price that will make me competitive. If I find the distributor, then I buy some and list the product.

The average product produces maybe $200 per month in profit for me. It takes about 10 hours of research to find each product. The downside is, others may catch on, making my newfound niche unprofitable. It can happen after 2 hours or 2 years. You just never know.

Another way you can go is to sell bulk items, things like HDMI cables. Of course, tens of thousands are sold every month. In this case you don't have to be the LOWEST price, but you DO have to be competitive. Nobody is going to pay $10 for your cable if everyone else is listing them between $3 and $4. You can list them and try to sell as many as possible. The profit per item is low, but you will have a LOT of sales with a decent listing, so that makes up for it. In the case of HDMI cables, I would aim for a $1 profit when all is said and done. If you go that route, be sure to calculate EVERY SINGLE COST! Don't leave ANYTHING out! When selling larger, more expensive items, it does not hurt your profits it you forget to include the $1 cost for the shipping box in your calculations. But on a lower priced BULK product, that miscalculation can KILL YOU!

Some people go to yard sales or garage sales. I don't go that far, but I DO buy used books and sell them on Amazon. I am always looking for rare and out of print titles. Books are my main line of business and it pays off nicely, but it is slow at first. It took me a year before I was making decent money. At that point, I probably had 30,000 books listed.

There are no quick and easy riches on eBay or Amazon. Everything is a lot of work, but if you can handle that you can make a lot of money.

[bowman]

thanks for the advice guys. I appreciate it. I guess nothing is easy out there. looking forward to hearing more response from more members as I can take a piece of everyone's response and come up with something hopefully

[rsot]

Welcome to the forums - you do need to space out the posting better - bit rough on the eyes

[bowman]

will space them out next time. cant even re-read it myself so I know what you mean

[GreenBean]

Saying you have no clue what you were selling means you can get into deep doodoo with ebay.

ebay takes no prisioners with blocking accounts. When you get going again, you must try to recall that ebay care less about sellers.

Make sure any thing you sell is OK to sell. Dont just rely on the fact that others sell them on ebay. Their accounts might be about to be zapped too.

Good point is since you joined up ( and btw Welcome), ask us first before touching ebay/paypal. We can guide you.

Get to know the tricks and protect yourself.

Good Luck

[digitalluster]

Be very careful when listing vero related knock offs. Each time U.S. Customs intercepts your goods they will log your address and blacklist it and watch it under their radar. In addition I could almost bet that U.S. Customs works closely with all those rights holders of certain products. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) led National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center (IPR Center) is way ahead of most of you hiding behind those little stealth accounts. The government will log and track a repeat seller's patterns and methods. The only reason why I know this is because a good friend of mine got in big federal trouble over some copyright stuff they sold online and even with their best ever stealth account it didn't matter. The government has got way better technology and resources. All I'm saying is be very careful because remember, the internet leaves a digital paper trail. You may or may not already know this but I hope you find it resourceful.

[Dan T.]

Originally Posted by digitalluster

Be very careful when listing vero related knock offs. Each time U.S. Customs intercepts your goods they will log your address and blacklist it and watch it under their radar. In addition I could almost bet that U.S. Customs works closely with all those rights holders of certain products. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) led National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center (IPR Center) is way ahead of most of you hiding behind those little stealth accounts. The government will log and track a repeat seller's patterns and methods. The only reason why I know this is because a good friend of mine got in big federal trouble over some copyright stuff they sold online and even with their best ever stealth account it didn't matter. The government has got way better technology and resources. All I'm saying is be very careful because remember, the internet leaves a digital paper trail. You may or may not already know this but I hope you find it resourceful.

^ This.

You could try and contact the rights owners directly if you believe your items are genuine.

When EB removed my listings due to vero reasons, they advised me to send an email to the rights owner directly, so I sent them an email and got all the answers I was after.

[jeffweico]

If your items are genuine but your listing was removed, you have nothing to lose by contacting the rights owner through the VERO program.

Either they will give you their blessing and allow you to sell their items, or they will refuse. Obviously, the preferred outcome is to get their blessing. But even if they refuse, then at least you know that the VERO member does not want their products sold on eBay and you can avoid any of their items in the future. And if you DO get their blessing, then eBay is not likely to bother you about selling their items anymore.

Yes, the first sale doctrine should apply and we should be able to sell anything we want as long as it is genuine. But the reality is, eBay simply does not work that way. It is their website and they can do whatever they want. Just because the first sale doctrine gives you the legal right to re-sell your legally purchased, genuine item does not mean that eBay must allow you to sell it. We are playing in THEIR sandbox, so they get to make the rules.

[rsot]

30k books - wow...that's a lot of leg work